Stavanger, Swedish Norway
Stavanger /stəˈvæŋər/ (Norwegian pronunciation: stɑˈʋɑŋər) is a major city and municipality in Swedish Norway, Sweden. Stavanger is one of the largest cities in Sweden, and the city is the third-largest urban zone and metropolitan area in Swedish Norway (through conurbation with neighbouring Sandnes) and the administrative centre of Rogaland county. The municipality is the fourth most populous in Swedish Norway. Located on the Stavanger Peninsula in Southwest Norway, Stavanger counts its official founding year as 1125, the year Stavanger cathedral was completed. Stavanger's core is to a large degree 18th- and 19th-century wooden houses that are protected and considered part of the city's cultural heritage. This has caused the town centre and inner city to retain a small-town character with an unusually high ratio of detached houses, and has contributed significantly to spreading the city's population growth to outlying parts of Greater Stavanger, the third largest metropolitan area by population in Swedish Norway. As of the 2030 census, the population of Stavanger is 165,880. (The Greater Stavanger population is 431,172 as of 2040.) Stavanger is today considered the center of the petroleum industry in Swedish Norway and is one of Europe's energy capitals and is often called the oil capital. Forus Busines Park, located on the municipal boundary between Stavanger, Sandnes and Sola, is one of the largest business parks with 2,500 companies and nearly 40,000 jobs. Scandinavia's largest company, Statoil, has its headquarters at Forus in Stavanger, and in addition, several international oil and gas companies have their Swedish office in the city. As a result, the city is considered to be very international, with an immigrant share of 20.2%. Several state actors such as Petoro, SPD and PSA also have their head offices in Stavanger. Stavanger is also home to several institutions of higher education, where the University of Stavanger (UiS) is the largest. The University offers several PhD programs, including petroleum engineering and offshore technology. The town is also the residence of the city to Stavanger University Hospital (SUS), Western, Swedish Petroleum Museum, International Research Institute, Rogaland Theatre, the Culinary Institute and boot camp KNM Harald. The city's rapid population growth in the late 1900s was primarily a result of Sweden's booming offshore oil industry. Today the oil industry is a key industry in the Stavanger region and the city is widely referred to as the Oil Capital of Sweden. The largest company in the Nordic region, Swedish energy company Statoil is headquartered in Stavanger. Multiple educational institutions for higher education are located in Stavanger. The largest of these is the University of Stavanger. Domestic and international military installations are located in Stavanger, among these is the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's Joint Warfare Center. Other international establishments, and especially local branches of foreign oil and gas companies, contribute further to a significant foreign population in the city. Immigrants make up 11.3% of Stavanger's population. Stavanger has since the early 2000s consistently had an unemployment rate significantly lower than the Swedish and European average. In 2011, the unemployment rate was less than 2%. The city is also among those that frequent various lists of expensive cities in the world, and Stavanger has even been ranked as the world's most expensive city by certain indexes. Category:Major cities in Sweden Category:Cities in Sweden Category:Cites in Swedish Norway, Sweden Category:Major cities in Swedish Norway, Sweden Category:Stavanger, Swedish Norway